Young states, “About that time when I wrote (“Heart of Gold”), and I was touring, I had also — just, you know, being a rich hippie for the first time — I had purchased a ranch, and I still live there today. And there was a couple living on it that were the caretakers, an old gentleman named Louis Avila and his wife Clara. And there was this old blue Jeep there, and Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep. He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there’s this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, “Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?” And I said, “Well, just lucky, Louie, just real lucky.” And he said, “Well, that’s the darndest thing I ever heard.” And I wrote this song for him.”

Now that he is older he might have re-written this song to called “Old Hip.”

Young man look at my life,
I was a lot like you are.
Young man look at my life,
I was a lot like you are.

Young man look at my life,
Sixty four
and there’s not much more
Lived alone with one bad hip
Makes me remember when I had two.

Hip lost, such a cost,
Give me things
that don’t fall off.
Like a femur that won’t get tossed
On my walker rolling back to you.

Young man look at my life,
I was a lot like you are.
I need someone to wheel me
the whole day through
Ah, one look in my gait
and you can tell that’s true.

Arthritic hips, tears in my eyes,
I used to run around this old town.
Doesn’t mean that much to you
To mean that much to me.

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I’ve been first and last
Look at how the time goes past.
But I’m all alone at last.
Rolling on my walker home to you.

Young man look at my life,
I was a lot like you are.
Young man look at my life,
I was a lot like you are.